Jitte, Edo period

[Timo Nieminen]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Timo, you can not have two weapons with the same name,

There are many examples of the same name being used for different weapons. Apart from broad generic terms like "sword", "spear", "dao", we have "kris" being used for very different Indonesian and Philippine weapons, "claymore" for Scottish basket hilts and two-handed swords, "tuck" for cut-and-thrust swords and for two-handed spike-swords, and more. Yes, it can be inconvenient for unambiguous labelling, but that's the way that language works. There are many non-weapon examples, too.

But if two weapons have the same pronunciation but different characters, they don't have the same names. Their names are homophones. However, your quote from Cunningham suggests that the name of Mol's "jitte" was used for the "jutte/jitte", and the name/kanji changed from one homophone to another, which would make it two names (both homophones) used for the same weapon, with one of the names also used for a different weapon (Mol's "jitte").

Originally Posted by estcrh

many people try to use what they consider the correct Japanese term but if they do not know about the two very different weapons how can they apply the correct name?

What is without doubt is that the modern Japanese name of the "jitte/jutte" is 十手 in kanji, じって in hiragana, and "jitte" romanised. "Jitte" is the correct Japanese name.

As I said, "jutte" is a possible candidate for an English name for the weapon. But so is "jitte", and while there might be reasonable grounds for saying that "jutte" is correct, or even better, as an English name, there are no reasonable grounds for saying that "jitte" is wrong.

I usually use "jutte" as the English name, or note the use of both "jutte" and "jitte" for the weapon. I think "jutte" is more common.

(Stone gives "jit-te" and "jittei".)